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News Articles: Brittney Griner

Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner plays in a September 2021 game. In her first public comments since being freed from Russia, she says she will play in the next WNBA season.

Tagged as: 

  • Sports

Brittney Griner says she'll play in the upcoming WNBA season

In her first public statement since being freed from Russia, the two-time Olympic gold medalist says she'll play for her team, the Phoenix Mercury, when the season starts in May.

December 16, 2022
|
By:
  • Rachel Treisman
GPB News NPR

Tagged as: 

  • World

Latest on Ukraine: A weekly recap and look ahead at Russia's war (Dec. 12)

Catch up on key developments and the latest in-depth coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

December 12, 2022
|
By:
  • NPR Staff
American basketball star Brittney Griner gets out of a plane after landing in San Antonio on Friday.

Tagged as: 

  • National

Brittney Griner is back home in the U.S. after a prisoner swap with Russia

American basketball star Brittney Griner returned to the United States early Friday after being freed in a high-profile prisoner exchange following nearly 10 months in detention in Russia.

December 09, 2022
|
By:
  • Jia Chen and
  • Emily Olson
Paul Whelan holds a sign in protest as he awaits his verdict in Moscow in June 2020. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison on charges of espionage.

Tagged as: 

  • World

Biden vows to bring longtime detainee Paul Whelan home from Russia too

The former U.S. Marine has been held in Russia since 2018. As supporters celebrate Brittney Griner's release, they — Whelan himself included — are wondering why he was left behind.

December 08, 2022
|
By:
  • Rachel Treisman
U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and later charged with illegal possession of cannabis, walks after the court's verdict in Khimki outside Moscow, Russia August 4, 2022. File photo by REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

Tagged as: 

  • Politics

Political Rewind: Brittney Griner released; Is GA purple?; Looking ahead to the 2023 legislature

Thursday on Political Rewind: The midterms are over. Today our panel gives final thoughts on what they mean for Georgia's political future. Plus, the legislature starts its 2023 session a month from tomorrow. We discuss what you can expect to see on the docket. But first, we dive into the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner.

December 08, 2022
|
By:
  • Bill Nigut ,
  • Natalie Mendenhall ,
  • and 1 more
The U.S. traded Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to Moscow in a prisoner exchange for American basketball player Brittney Griner. Bout is shown here in custody in Bangkok in 2008. After being extradited to the U.S. and convicted of conspiring to kill Americans, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Tagged as: 

  • World

Who is Viktor Bout, the Russian prisoner the U.S. traded for Brittney Griner?

Bout is a Russian who was the world's most notorious arms dealer in the 1990s and early 2000s. He was serving a 25-year prison sentence in Illinois before being freed as part of a U.S.-Russia swap.

December 08, 2022
|
By:
  • Greg Myre
Liudmyla, left, embraces her granddaughter, Ania, who arrived Saturday on the first Ukrainian Railways train to reach liberated Kherson, Ukraine. The train from Kyiv arrived to jubilation and tears.

Tagged as: 

  • World

Latest on Ukraine: Kherson revives as war rounds 9th month (Nov. 21)

Catch up on key developments and the latest in-depth coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

November 21, 2022
|
By:
  • NPR Staff
U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner, who was sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony in August for drug smuggling, is seen on a screen via a video link from a remand prison during a court hearing to consider an appeal against her sentence, at the Moscow regional court on Oct. 25.

Tagged as: 

  • World

Russia sends Brittney Griner to a penal colony

The U.S. basketball star was transferred to a prison colony in Mordovia — 300 miles southeast of Moscow — to begin serving out a nine-year sentence on drug charges.

November 17, 2022
|
By:
  • Charles Maynes
GPB News NPR

Tagged as: 

  • World

A Pussy Riot member describes what Brittney Griner can expect in Russian penal colony

Maria Alyokhina was sent to a penal colony as a member of the feminist punk collective. Authorities "teach you how to forget your right to choose," she says. She urges Griner "to not forget yourself."

November 10, 2022
|
By:
  • Charles Maynes
WNBA basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and later charged with illegal possession of cannabis, sits inside a defendants' cage after the court's verdict during a hearing in Khimki outside Moscow, on Aug. 4, 2022.

Tagged as: 

  • World

U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner has been sent to a Russian penal colony

Griner has been moved from a detention center outside of Moscow and is being sent to a Russian penal colony to begin serving out her nine-year sentence on drug smuggling charges, her lawyers said.

November 09, 2022
|
By:
  • Charles Maynes
Women's National Basketball Association player Brittney Griner leaves the courtroom after the verdict in Khimki, outside Moscow, on Aug. 4. A Russian court found Griner guilty of smuggling and storing narcotics.

Tagged as: 

  • World

Brittney Griner's prison sentence is upheld in a Russian court

The decision effectively sends Griner to serve out her nine-year term in a Russian prison colony, even as the U.S. and Russia appear set to reengage in talks for a possible prisoner swap.

October 25, 2022
|
By:
  • Charles Maynes
WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner stands listening to a verdict in a courtroom in Khimki just outside Moscow, Russia, on Aug. 4. Griner apologized to her family and teams as a Russian court heard closing arguments in her drug possession trial.

Tagged as: 

  • World

Biden meets with the families of Russia detainees Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan

President Biden has said Griner and Whelan are wrongfully detained in Russia. Griner, a WNBA star, was convicted of marijuana possession, and Whelan, an ex-Marine, was convicted of espionage.

September 17, 2022
|
By:
  • Ayana Archie and
  • Joe Hernandez
A priest prays for unidentified civilians killed by Russian troops in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Aug. 11. Eleven unidentified bodies exhumed from a mass grave were buried in Bucha that day.

Tagged as: 

  • World

Russia-Ukraine war: A weekly recap and look ahead (Aug. 15)

Catch up on key developments and the latest in-depth coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

August 15, 2022
|
By:
  • NPR Staff
WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner is escorted from a court room ater a hearing, in Khimki just outside Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022.

Tagged as: 

  • Law

Lawyers for basketball star Brittney Griner appeal her Russian prison sentence

Griner's attorney was quoted by Russian news agencies on Monday as saying the appeal was filed, but the grounds of the appeal were not immediately clear.

August 15, 2022
|
By:
  • The Associated Press
American pilot Francis Gary Powers (far right) during his 1960 trial in Moscow. Powers was shot down while flying a U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union. He was jailed for nearly two years before he was freed in a swap for a Soviet spy imprisoned in the U.S.

Tagged as: 

  • National Security

The Cold War to Brittney Griner: a new twist in U.S.-Russia prisoner swaps

The U.S. and Russia are trying to work out a prisoner exchange that involves basketball star Brittney Griner. While they've done deals for decades, the trading usually involves spies for spies.

August 11, 2022
|
By:
  • Greg Myre
  • Load More

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